kokirofandomcom-20200216-history
Forum:Ask Star (MouseK, July 2009)
Welcome to the first ever public interview with Star Glover, hosted by the ever optimistic and non-artistic MouseK. Questions posed to Star will be in bold type, after which she can enter her answers for the edification of all the Kokiro-ites (Kokirans? Kokiristas? Definitely not Kokirins, anyway) out there. ---- Welcome to the interview studio, Star! Hopefully we should have an audience in a few days' time. Star: Thank you very much! I'm really excited to be here. To begin with, what was your initial inspiration for "Kokiro", and has the comic evolved since then? Star: Oh, my. Well . . . it's kind of a long answer! I always liked drawing and I was a pretty imaginative child. When my sister and I started feeling too old to play-act with toys anymore, I was still making up stories--so I started writing them down. I remember some pretty silly stuff, like stories about a puce colored pencil that was sad because nobody ever used it, and stuff like that. Around 1999 I started a story about two sisters--one could turn into a cat and the other could turn into a wolf. Somehow that turned into a really cliché magical-girl story, with the main focus being a mary-sue named "Lia," (Yep!) involved in some sort of prophecy I don't remember that connected her to two magical boys, Chay (who later became Sudare) and Zouji (who kept his name), who had pointed ears and wings. It was pretty ridiculous. Later on she had a necklace with an orb on it, and the orb would talk. Then the orb turned into a little boy in purple pajamas, and his name was Jitai (some sort of online Japanese translator site said that "jitai" meant "a mind of its own" or something like that, but I've really botched the pronunciation so I don't think it counts as a Japanese word anymore). I kind of stalled for a little while and put that story away. In 2000 Sunshine helped me start a webcomic called "Buppy" (bunny + puppy) that was less than 20 pages long and didn't go anywhere, but she was really encouraging about it and said that she liked my comics better than my "novels" (because they were really huge, thick stories). So I started another comic, loosely inspired by the "Sun's Song" poem in Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It was about a little angel (Kokiro) who worked for God's corrupt oldest daughter (later her name changed to "Sandy") as a sort of grim reaper before going a little insane and making friends with God's younger daughter, the devil (she was "Sunny Sandy" until her older sister needed a name, and then she was just "Sunny"). Kokiro reaped the soul of Cody Ishrian, who woke up in purgatory with nobody but an uncaring Angellene to greet him. Pippin was also in there as the computer program on an apple LCD flat panel display imac, who ran the security system and generally smoothed the goings-on in heaven. That story kind of petered out around 2002 when I didn't know what else to do with it. Around the same time I was still working on that story. Jitai (for a brief time his name was Xitain. Jiminey!) was living in Singer's Warren with a white Tailimin named Zora, a kind of child-raised-by-wolves (tailimins) thing. He ran into Nizarah, who was living in the forest, and became his healer's apprentice. But nothing was really happening. And then? I drew a picture of Kokiro and Jitai together. They were the best of friends, and I had to find some way of getting the two of them together. It started with the idea of Jitai being captured by the government, thinking he was some sort of alien, and needing Kokiro to help him get out of there. Everything just sort of fell into place after that. Maybe none of it makes any sense to anyone except me, but it still wasn't too hard to construct the different worlds and species and characters. And the time-travel is always all perfectly sensible, in my mind :P I've always loved time-travel, and being mysterious. It still took me a long time to get up to where I was confident putting it online, though. Lots of drawing and dreaming about them, but not a lot of writing anymore. No waffling! Who is your favourite major character in the comic, and why? Ooh, dang. Ah. Um. Hmm. Okay, it's Jitai. I love him. I love Kokiro, too, but Jitai is just such the archetypical child. If I ever have kids of my own someday, I might get over it, but until then Jitai is "my baby", heh. And who is your favourite minor character, and why? Cody Ishrian is just such a "What? Hu?" character. It's hilarious. Tarin is pretty good, too. Tarin is indignant a lot, which is the perfect response, I think, for her situation. I don't know why more of my characters aren't more indignant about the whole ridiculous thing. On average, how long does it take you to draw a page of "Kokiro"? It really depends on the page. Sometimes I can get "in the zone" and knock out a few penciled-pages in about an hour, and from there it's only another hour or so of inking and coloring. I've got a pretty good system of getting all that grunt work done in good time, but it's the initial pencilling that gets me. I don't write pages ahead of time. I have a rough idea of where I want to go, and I sit there and let the characters surprise me. Sometimes I have to throw a page out, if I find that I've forced it and actually there was a better idea waiting. You seem to find fan speculation rather amusing. What's the wackiest out-there guess anyone has made about the plot or the characters? I'm not sure 'amusing' is the right word. I mean, yeah, sometimes it's hilarious, but I'm not so derisive as all that. Any interest or communication about the comic is really appreciated, even if it is totally out there. Sometimes I even get ideas. Usually it helps me figure out what I need to clarify, and what can wait until later. I think the wildest speculation was from seccludoom, and it was about the origins of the Kokirins. I don't think I need to go into detail on the specifics, but I think it's necessary to make one thing clear: Kokiro is never going to say, "Nizarah! I am . . . your father!" Is there anything that surprises you about people's response to "Kokiro"? Actually I'm surprised that so many people seem to like it. ^^;; I really make a point of going where it takes me, instead of trying to please any certain demographic or cater to fans. I mean, I'm very happy about feedback and it helps a lot, and fans are delightful, but when someone says something like "you should do this or that" I'm not just going to throw it in there if it doesn't fit with the story. I suppose I'll never make any money with this project because of that, but there will be other projects I can sell my integrity for. XP I also think it's funny that so many people want to pin down Kiro's gender. I get "Is Kokiro a girl or a boy?" all the time. "It's neither," I reply. "You mean, like a hermaphrodite?" "NO! It's not both, it's neither!" "But should I call Kiro 'he' or 'she'?" "It's an 'it'!" Haha. Since "Kokiro" seems to have a definite plot, it will presumably also have an end someday. How long do you envision the comic continuing, and do you already have the plot planned out that far? Ah, well. I have general ideas, of course. There's major landmarks, though everything in between will be made up as I need it, which is the way I like it. I'm pretty ambitious at this point, though. I see cities in the future, but also endless expanses of desert, ocean, and of course some more forest. There's a lot more places than just Coyote, and a lot more to learn about the characters. And I do mean a lot. Assuming I get to see this project to completion, we're not nearly a quarter of the way through the story. I do have a bit of an ending in mind, though. When the time comes I'll end it properly, and hopefully bring it to a satisfying conclusion. Now for a dreaded continuity question. Kokiro can theoretically appear in any shape it wants to-- but there are different versions of Kokiro that default to different looks. What's up with that? Wellllll, see. Kokiro can indeed look like anything it wants to, with proper energy and inspiration. It can change as the situation dictates. But obviously Kiro is more than just a machine--its appearance is influenced by more than what is most practical or most beneficial; it's also a matter of preference. Like its wings--they serve no purpose, but Kiro likes them, and so it has them. Its appearance is also influenced by the way it feels, though. When you feel sad, it's hard to fake a smile. You look sad. It's like that; not all appearance changes are strictly voluntary. It also helps people keep track of where Kiro is in time each time is appears. The very littlest Kiro is from right after the Jackers stole it. Kiro looks a bit older once it's with Jitai. Later it's feeling a little upset, and its shirt is black. When Kiro feels better, its appearance reflects that, too. Maybe it'll turn into a chair or a monster every now and then, but then it returns to an approximation of this base form, both for the benefit of its 'user' and for its own ease (can you imagine having to re-learn your body's limitations every day?). Uh . . . does that help? Do you ever miss drawing/writing Angellene and the Jackers, or Earthborn characters like Cody Ishrian? They got their fifteen minutes in the spotlight and then disappeared into obscurity, but I get the feeling you like them... I do like them, but I don't miss them too much. They're still around, and I know they'll be back soon. :D Put a girl out of her misery: Will we ever get an answer to the mystery of the non?existent Sixth Kokirin? Yes! Very soon, in fact. Misery be gone! Well, actually, maybe not. I suppose it depends on how much of an in-depth revelation you were looking for. You're going to see what they looked like and a little of what happened to them. And then the mystery will get even worse, and you'll pull your hair out. Sorry! What do you do when you're not drawing "Kokiro"? Homework! Lots and lots of schoolwork. I'm a straight-A college student, going for my teacher's credential. It's a lot of hard work, but very very rewarding. I love school. I just don't love all the work . . . I also draw other things, sometimes for money but usually for fun or as a favor to someone who's helped me out (and I do need a lot of help!). I also love sewing. Mostly I make toys, and I've made some character dolls. I made Mitori! I made Zouji but he doesn't have any clothes yet; he's wearing Inuyasha's clothes. He looks silly. But I also make clothes and accessories. Recently I've taken up Kanzashi Tsumami--it's really fun and rewarding. I also like papercrafting and origami, knitting, flower-pressing, gardening, sculpture, painting, felting, and a bunch of other stuff. When I see a project tutorial online, I have to try it! My room is full of supplies and half-finished creations. Sometimes I'll start working on it and then get distracted by videogames. I'll get to them someday! ^^;; I've also started making button-badges. Just Kokiro so far, and pictures of puppies. I love puppies. I also spend a bit of time ecstatically squeeing over the kind words and interest of people like you :D Thank you! Thank you very much for your time, Star! Hope to see you around Project WiKiro again soon.